By Gary Lee Stuber
Pierson Lumber Company, an icon in Clay County, has been resurrected from its own ashes this week, only eleven months after its fall. In the wee hours of the morning on March 28, 2023, Clay County lost one of its longest existing employers as Pierson Lumber’s sawmill burnt to the ground. The devastating loss put many Clay County families out of work.
The loss was particularly devastating to the business’s owner, David Pierson. For more than a week he struggled with a perplexing issue: should he just take this as a sign he should take the insurance money and retire? Or, considering the fluctuation in lumber sales and recent plunging business issues in this industry, take a business risk and rebuild. The economy is struggling to rise despite efforts by the Administration to ‘go green.’ The unending environmental attacks in both the fossil fuel industry and the logging industry makes it harder and harder to do business. It was a real struggle, compounded by the fact so many long time employees and their families were suffering with this loss of their employment.
With Pierson Lumber going back 81 years and at least three generations, one would imagine that it was easy-come easy-go having inherited the business from his father.
No. There was no inheritance. In fact, in the late seventies/early eighties, David had started his own sawmill “a few miles down the road.” But in the eighties he eventually merged his mill with his fathers and with his brother in a three-way partnership. By the late eighties, with good management on his part, he bought his two partners out. No inheritance at all. Hard work and dedication of a lifetime in this industry got him this business. So here he was, facing the devastating loss of a business he had built and managed through good years and lean years.
After a heartfelt conversation with his wife, Janeen, Dave called a meeting with all of his employees. He told them he decided to rebuild. This was, although many don’t know this, an unselfish decision. David could easily have taken the money and retired. Just like some of his other Clay County interests, he chose this course for the benefit of the county and his long time employees.
For almost a year now, David has been rebuilding the mill. As you may imagine the insurance payout was not enough to do this. So David has put a substantial amount of his own money (and borrowed some) to make this reality happen. David’s youngest son, Ben, who also works for his father said, “My father is one of the hardest working people you’ll ever meet. He is very dedicated to what he does. He has, and will continue to be a sawmill operator. He enjoys this work; he loves it. It took a lot of hard work to get this new mill up and running. Except for a hiccup or two he will soon be making lumber for local and outside customers. He is here to make this community progress and stay alive as much as it can.”
And to do the rebuild mostly on his own, rather than hire a contractor, he paid many of his employees to do the cleanup work on the site. Following this, he hired them to lay down two additional concrete pads next to the original concrete floor. Pierson Lumber employees cleaned and repaired remaining metallic structures. They helped install new mill parts and blades. And to meet insurance requirements they made a platform to raise the mill off of the floor. He also built the new mill completely out of metal, no wood involved. They even erected the new metallic building that now houses the new mill.
He hired employees who wanted a future to earn their wages helping him build. They made it through the year together. Employee James Scott says, “You hit a snafu or two, you always get a bug or two when working out a new system, but even today you can see we were working well.” He pointed to a stack of squared off; maybe six-foot-long blocks stacked up like new railroad ties.
Throughout the year, loggers were still bringing him logs for sale. And as he could, David separated them by type and sold them to other mills, giving him another resource to supplement his rebuild.
And last week, after successful testing, the mill opened for its first day of business again. David, who is also an active member of the Clay County School Board and part of the Clay Volunteer Fire Department and Senior Citizens Board of Directors, is proud of what his employees have helped him accomplish. Because of this, once again Clay County has a future that is just a little bit brighter.
Dave took me on a tour a day or two before the mill geared up for full operation, and I got to view the new blade and the place where the lumber goes down for trimming and finishing or goes down an adjustable belt line to waste. All trim, short block or waste as well as sawdust, are pulled into one of three trailers for recycling or sales elsewhere. There is an aftermarket for trim or chips or even sawdust. The floor will be swept of sawdust from shift to shift to keep the new millfloor debris free and add to the sawdust recycling trucks. The entire mechanized system from where logs are sourced to their final destination is all shiny and new looking, painted fire engine red or mountaineer gold and the occasional green paint. Much of it isn’t new, but resurrected structures from the old mill renovated and sanded and repainted from the backbone of the mill. All of this is thanks to employees who took pride in the rebuild.
David called in contractors to build for him an overhead auger system that will move sawdust efficiently and quietly into trucks. It is the only piece of the structure not built by employees. Terry Brown, who was hired on as the rebuild was in progress, says, “I probably did 90 percent of the wiring in this entire building a lot of hard work, me and James (Scott).” James agrees that “David put a lot of heart in this place. That he has always been a good man who treats everyone fair.”
Tests of the mill were made prior to my tour of the facility and they were only a day away from gearing up for full time sawmill work. Jenny Graham, who pretty much handles all the calls and reception work recalls the day, “Last Thursday was an exciting day, seeing the mill back at work for full operation after eleven months.” It was a day worth celebrating indeed.
Things only get brighter from here.
I never knew they came back from bankruptcy.